F1 champ Fernando Alonso did not qualify for 2019 Indy 500

Fernando Alonso is a man on a mission, and that is to be the second driver to complete the highly coveted Triple Crown of motorsports after Damon Hill. So far, he’s already completed two out of the three requirements – winning the Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The only thing missing is the Indianapolis 500, which most of us have been highly anticipating.

Unfortunately, we won’t get to see that happen, not this year at least, as Fernando Alonso and Mclaren have failed to qualify for the 2019 Indy 500.

“In my 35 years of racing, this is the most painful experience I've ever had but we are racers. We respect this place and it is one of the toughest challenges in racing. This experience will only make us stronger as a team, and we want to come back,” said Gil De Ferran, Sporting Director of Mclaren.

Alonso and Mclaren have been struggling during the entire weekend, failing to finish in the top-30 qualifying on Saturday which would have secured him a place on the grid. During the final ‘Last Row Shootout’, Alonso averaged 365.88 km/h (227.353 mph) which was enough to get him into the provisional final three spots of the grid. But, it seems that it was not fast enough. Kyle Kaiser of the smaller Juncos team was able to bump Alonso off with a 365.91 km/h (227.37 mph) average time during his qualifying session for the last three spots.

“It has been a very long qualifying, nearly 56 hours from yesterday morning. Yesterday, we were 31st instead of 30th. Today, 34th instead of 33rd by a very small margin, and unfortunately, we were not fast enough on both days. I’m disappointed now, obviously, it would be nice to be in the race next Sunday,” said Alonso.

This year was only the Spaniard’s second appearance at the historic Indianapolis 500. His first attempt was back in 2017 where he qualified fifth and led the race for a good number of laps before retiring with an engine failure. Unfortunately, 2019 won’t be his year to win the Indy 500 either. Hopefully, it’s third times the charm for Alonso?